A Minimally-biased Philosophy of Life: Physics perspective

"Humanity" has many meanings. In the most neutral sense it means the properties of being human, which as a theoretical biologist I take to mean scientifically definable ones: properties of motor control, information-gathering, emotional self-regulation, social behavior, and so on. But being scientifically definable does not mean they have no experiential quality, in fact the opposite. A theory claiming to explain human thoughts and sensations ought to have its explanations match experience for most people if not everyone. Because I cannot speak for everyone, I will stick to my own experiences, and those recorded by others.

"Humanity" also means an intellectual discipline (as in, "the humanities"). Most of what I know I learned from my collaborator Criscillia Benford, whose understanding of multiplot novels in particular and artistic media in general parallels my own understanding. She has received global recognition for her writing and thought, so I leave the details of narrative compression, artistic encoding, and cultural information flow to her.